ENGLEWOOD CLIFFS, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Apr 25, 2024--
Unilever has officially announced its partnership with CONMEBOL Copa América USA 2024™, with four Personal Care brands named as Official Sponsors. Axe, Degree, Dove, and Dove Men+Care will be integrated throughout the tournament, which will span 14 cities in the United States from June 20 to July 14. The partnership aligns with our Personal Care portfolio and ambition to drive confidence and inclusivity in sports.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240425808943/en/
The 48th edition of CONMEBOL Copa América USA 2024™ will see 16 teams compete over the course of 24 days. This edition of the tournament will return to the United States for the first time since 2016, where Copa América Centenario set a new record in attendance with nearly 1.5 million fans. Argentina returns as the defending champions, with Lionel Messi and company opening the tournament at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, GA, against Canada.
Underscoring the significance and excitement surrounding the tournament, Unilever's Personal Care brands will meet fans both inside and outside stadiums this summer. Through a blend of retail promotions, digital activations and stadium experiences, Axe, Degree, Dove and Dove Men+Care will honor the energy and emotion that all fans bring when the competition begins.
“Working with the CONMEBOL Copa América USA 2024™, our brands will connect with an enormous and highly engaged audience. This is a significant opportunity to engage a growing audience of soccer fans, demonstrate relevance, and build brand power, while promoting sports for future generations of athletes,” says Fabian Garcia, Personal Care President at Unilever.
"Having Unilever as a partner provides us with the opportunity to connect with fans and athletes in a different way, where we invite everyone to feel greatness through brands that enhance their well-being. We’re very excited about all the upcoming joint actions that will give our fans the opportunity to live one-of-a-kind experiences all over the continent," said José Astigarraga, CONMEBOL’s Secretary General.
About Unilever
Unilever is one of the world’s leading suppliers of Beauty & Wellbeing, Personal Care, Home Care, Nutrition and Ice Cream products, with sales in over 190 countries and products used by 3.4 billion people every day. We have 127,000 employees and generated sales of €59.6 billion in 2023.
For more information about Unilever and our brands, please visit www.unilever.com.
About CONMEBOL
The Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol, better known as CONMEBOL (which comes from the acronym used in cable releases: Confederación Sudamericana de Fútbol), is the confederation of national football associations (federations) of South America. Founded on July 9, 1916 in Buenos Aires, it is the first Confederation in the world, established almost 40 years before the next ones to be formed. CONMEBOL originated from a tournament between countries of the South American continent. The first Copa América was held in 1916 in Buenos Aires in celebration of the hundred years of Argentina’s independence. This was the beginning of the institution, originally composed of the associations of Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Uruguay. Later on, the other South American associations joined CONMEBOL: Paraguay (1921), Peru (1925), Bolivia (1926), Ecuador (1927), Colombia (1936) and Venezuela (1953). It is the only soccer confederation in which all its associations are also members of FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Its ten member National Associations are the pride of CONMEBOL.
About CONMEBOL Copa America 2024™
The CONMEBOL Copa América 2024™ will be played in the United States and will include 10 CONMEBOL teams and 6 guest teams from Concacaf. In this edition, this traditional tournament is organized by both confederations. In its 48th edition of one of the continent's most important competitions, this will be the second time in the tournament's history that it will host 16 teams, having hosted the same number of teams in its 2016 edition, also held in the United States. On the field will be the current world champion, Argentina, and the biggest football stars in the world to compete in 32 matches in this edition between June and July 2024.
(Graphic: Business Wire)
LONDON (AP) — Millions of voters in England cast ballots Thursday in an array of local elections, the last big test before a looming U.K. general election that all indicators suggest will see the Labour Party return to power after 14 years in the wilderness.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was barely able to point to any big success for his Conservative Party, confirming that the electoral coalition that gave the party a big win in the 2019 general election has frayed, if not completely dissolved, in the wake of a series of political dramas and the cost of living crisis.
For Labour leader Keir Starmer, the results provided confirmation of what opinion polls have shown for two years — that Labour has recovered from its 2019 low and is on course to win the election comfortably.
Here are five things we learned:
It's possible.
Though the Conservatives lost around half the 1,000 council seats they held, and suffered a huge defeat in the special parliamentary election in Blackpool South, a coastal resort town in the northwest of England, it looks as though Sunak will not face a revolt just yet from anxious lawmakers in his party.
That's largely because the Conservative candidate in the mayoral contest in Tees Valley in the northeast of England hung on, albeit with a much depressed vote. That helped soothe some concerns despite losses elsewhere.
However, the defeat of the Conservative incumbent mayor in the West Midlands could prompt another bout of jitters among lawmakers increasingly concerned about their ability to hold onto their seats in a general election. Sunak is under pressure from different wings of the party to go further right or move to the center.
Overall, the results show that Sunak hasn't improved the Conservatives’ overall position following the damage caused by the actions of his predecessors, Boris Johnson, who was effectively ousted, and then replaced by Liz Truss, whose tenure lasted only 49 days after her economic policies rocked financial markets.
Probably in the fall.
In the U.K., the date of the general election rests in the hands of the prime minister. It has to take place by January, and Sunak has repeatedly said that his “working assumption” was that it would take place in the second half of 2024.
Though that theoretically could take place as soon as July, most Conservative lawmakers have indicated that the best time would be in the fall, when recent tax cuts may register with voters, inflation has fallen further, and interest rates may have been cut — helping to fuel an economic feelgood factor.
Waiting till the fall may also give the government a chance to cut taxes again in another budget. Conservatives will also be hoping that the controversial plan to send some asylum-seekers to Rwanda will have got off the ground and that there is evidence that it is acting as a deterrent for those seeking to make the dangerous crossing in small boats across the English Channel from France to England.
It looks like it.
In historical terms, Labour has a mountain to climb, if it’s going to form the next government. Its performance at the last general election in 2019 was its worst since 1935. Starmer has tried to bring the party back to the center of U.K. politics after the leadership of veteran left-winger Jeremy Corbyn.
Starmer’s approach has clearly worked if Thursday's results are anything to go by. Labour won control of councils in England that the party hasn’t held for decades, and was successful on a massive swing away from the Conservatives in Blackpool South, which if repeated at the general election would lead to a big majority.
Labour won in areas that voted for Britain’s departure from the European Union in 2016 and where it was crushed by Brexit-backer Johnson, such as Hartlepool in the northeast of England, and Thurrock in southeast England. It also seized control of Rushmoor, a leafy and military-heavy council in the south of England where it had never won, showing that it has a broad base of support.
It’s fair to say that enthusiasm levels are far lower than those that heralded the arrival of Labour's Tony Blair before the 1997 general election.
That may be partly because of the more challenging economic backdrop, but Starmer, formerly a human rights lawyer, lacks the razzmatazz of Blair.
It'll be tough.
One of the contributing factors to Blair’s landslide victory in 1997 came from so-called tactical voting, whereby some voters put aside their political preference and vote for whoever has the best chance of defeating the party they oppose the most. In 1997, that was the Conservatives.
Tactical voting has reemerged and was evident somewhat in Thursday's elections where Conservative candidates lost out to other parties, not just Labour, but also to the centrist Liberal Democrats and also to the Green Party.
The Conservatives may also be outflanked from the right, with Reform U.K. poised to stand candidates across Britain. In Thursday's elections, it was a minimal presence but where the party did stand, it clearly took votes away from Conservative candidates. That was notable in Blackpool South, where the Reform candidate was just shy of usurping the Conservatives into second.
Should Reform, which claims to be tougher on issues such as immigration and on Brexit, do as well in a general election, then it could lead to other parties, notably Labour, defeating Conservatives.
It certainly looks like it.
In some areas with large Muslim populations, such as Blackburn and Oldham in northwest England, Labour candidates appear to have suffered as a result of the leadership’s strongly pro-Israel stance over the conflict in Gaza.
Labour's vote share was clearly impacted, but the effect on its performance in a general election remains unclear, as those seats with a big Muslim population generally have big Labour majorities.
London Mayoral Labour Party candidate Sadiq Khan pats his dog Luna as they pose for the media he arrives to vote in London, Thursday, May 2, 2024. Khan, is seeking re-election, and standing against 12 other candidates for the post of Mayor of London. There are other Mayoral elections in English cities and as well as local council elections. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Britain's Labour leader Keir Starmer and his wife Victoria leave the polling station in his Holborn and St Pancras constituency, after casting their votes in the local and London Mayoral election, in north London, Thursday May 2, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)
Counting begins at the Blackpool South by-election at Blackpool Sports Centre in Blackpool, England, Thursday, May 2, 2024. The by-election was triggered after the resignation of Scott Benton. (Peter Byrne/PA via AP)
Tourists on a cycle tour in wet weather plastic macs, cycle past the Houses of Parliament, in London Friday, May 3, 2024. Britain's governing Conservative Party is suffering heavy losses as local election results pour in Friday, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak ahead of a U.K. general election in which the main opposition Labour Party appears increasingly likely to return to power after 14 years. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung)
Conservative party candidate Lord Ben Houchen, left, with Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak following his re-election as Tees Valley Mayor in Teesside, England, Friday May 3, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
Britain's Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer with newly elected East Midlands mayor Claire Ward during a visit to Forest Town Arena in Mansfield, England, Saturday May 4, 2024. (Jacob King/PA via AP)
Britain's Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, center, and shadow chancellor Rachel Reeves, celebrate with David Skaith at Northallerton Town Football Club, North Yorkshire, after winning the York and North Yorkshire mayoral election, Friday May 3, 2024. (Owen Humphreys/PA via AP)
